I've just had a email from Subset Game, the FTL (Faster Then Light (http://www.ftlgame.com/)) Beta has gone live for the $25+ Kickstarters and I've got my key. Unfortunately I'm stuck at work atm. :-(

Has anyone else managed to get it up and running yet?

Hanban

14-06-2012, 11:14 AM

Stuck in the same boat as you. Looking forward to getting home from work today!

Ocelotwildly

14-06-2012, 11:33 AM

I am at work, but as soon as the e-mail fell into my inbox about 6 months of quivering anticipation got the better of me and I had to install it just to take a look. I'm going to dash through the tutorial on my lunch break so I can get stuck straight in when I get home later.

It all seems as magnificent as I'd hoped when I first signed up to the Kickstarter, the only thing i've noticed is I can't seem to play fullscreen or resize the window so I'm stuck in a sort of letterbox resolution. It's no big problem, but hopefully something that will get worked out after the Beta.

Space Indaver

14-06-2012, 01:32 PM

Anyone mind saying what FTL is?

Ocelotwildly

14-06-2012, 01:50 PM

Heh, I've been looking forward to it for a while now, so didn't really occur that others might not be in the same boat! It's a semi-rougelike space exploration game that focuses on ship to ship combat and the management of crew and ship systems. They funded through a kickstarter a while ago, and $25+ backers got access to the Beta, which has now gone live. More information is available at www.ftlgame.com.

Having had a quick blast through it on my lunchbreak I have to say it seems to have lived up to my expectations. I never had a chance to try the OnLive pre-beta test, so really wanted to see how it all worked out and it seems to be as good as I was hoping. Only seen the first few sectors though, so looking forward to the increased scope and challenge as I head further out into space!

Sarigs

14-06-2012, 01:54 PM

Yeah sorry about that, didn't give it a second thought as it has had a fair amount of coverage on RPS, although admittedly a while back! Ocelotwildly got it covered though.

Aye definitely going to enjoy a decent poke around when I get back....in about 5 hours....work sucks...

Here's the main RPS Post: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/28/beaming-ftl-is-the-star-trek-game-ive-always-wanted/

gwathdring

14-06-2012, 01:55 PM

http://www.ftlgame.com/?p=224

Faster Than Light. It's an indie space game that looks kind of cool. You control a ship and customize it and shoot things and whatnot. Not my cup of tea, exactly, but it looks well done.

In its own words:
FTL is a spaceship simulation roguelike-like. Its aim is to recreate the atmosphere of running a spaceship exploring the galaxy (like Firefly/Star Trek/BSG etc.)

What is the gameplay like? The game is split into two major parts: exploration and combat. You explore by making faster-than-light jumps over vast distances in space; arriving at locations containing text-based events that have a variety of choices and outcomes. Your crew will improve with experience, while your ship can be upgraded with advanced weaponry and equipment purchased with collected scrap metal. Fighting enemy ships involves real-time management of crew, power distribution and weapons. Check out the video on the front page (http://www.ftlgame.com) to see it in action.

That’s too long, what’s a shorter description? Tom Francis of Gunpoint (http://www.gunpointgame.com/)described it as “Firefly by way of Spelunky.” It has also been compared to Weird Worlds (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Digital_Eel/WW/WW_page.html) and Battlestations (http://www.battlestations.info/).

More FAQ: http://www.ftlgame.com/?page_id=192

Hanban

14-06-2012, 06:06 PM

First impression: It's awesome.

daggerbite

14-06-2012, 06:23 PM

People who wish they'd chipped into the kickstarter earlier: me...

TailSwallower

14-06-2012, 07:58 PM

I pledged to the Kickstarter, but only at the basic level. In the system requirements I think they had a minimum resolution that my netbook won't support, so I figured beta access won't do any good for me seeing as by the time I'm back on my 'real computer' the full game will be out.

Played the hell outta the OnLive demo though. Fantastic game.

somini

14-06-2012, 09:49 PM

Does anyone else didn't receive the beta key? To be honest, they said on twitter they were going to bed and tomorrow they would see it, but I want to know if it's just me.

AlexClockwork

14-06-2012, 10:30 PM

I only pledged 15$, as I thought paying 66% more for playing the beta was too much... I'm not sure I did right, though. XD

TechnicalBen

14-06-2012, 10:54 PM

First impression: It's awesome.

This. I'm happy with it already. It's worth the $25 (I paid in £ though ;) ) even in it's current BETA state. I've had no problems with it AFAIK in the 2 or so hours I've been playing. That's like no bugs, and I break other software A LOT. :P

The music and content is really nice and atmospheric too. Quite a bit of emergent play or player driven narrative possible too. :)

With the addition of more content coming and more polish (not that it even needs any more!) it's gonna be one amazing and popular indie game!

LTK

15-06-2012, 12:09 AM

I pledged to the Kickstarter, but only at the basic level. In the system requirements I think they had a minimum resolution that my netbook won't support, so I figured beta access won't do any good for me seeing as by the time I'm back on my 'real computer' the full game will be out.

Played the hell outta the OnLive demo though. Fantastic game.

I'm in the same boat. I didn't want to get burned out on a beta before the full game is out, like what happened with Minecraft. Still, I secured a copy so I'll be playing it some day.

Lambchops

15-06-2012, 01:16 AM

It's looking like brilliant stuff. In a way I'm glad that I'm sufficiently awful at it that I'm going to take ages getting slightly better and learning all the tricks and ways around things and gradually make more and more progress.

Early impressions are that it's going to become one of my go to games for filling in a quick hour or so (a position occupied at times by Audiosurf, Spelunky, Binding of Isaac and Desktop Dungeons). Of course the true test of longevity with this sort of game is whether it can keep the initial sections fun to play repeatedly (for me this was something that, for example, Dungeons of Dredmor didn't do particularly well). Looks like it's going down the route of unlocks which force you to alter your strategy which worked very well with Desktop Dungeons so I think it should pan out fine.

Worth the money already.

Hanban

15-06-2012, 05:34 AM

It's looking like brilliant stuff. In a way I'm glad that I'm sufficiently awful at it that I'm going to take ages getting slightly better and learning all the tricks and ways around things and gradually make more and more progress.

For some odd reason I thought I would be amazingly good at it off the bat. My last game ended with one crew member frantically repairing the ship from fire damage in a nebula after a rogue AI attack. As he was repairing the weapons bay the life-support exploded and caught on fire. Since the fire had spread to both spaces in the life-support bay I couldn't get him in there to extinguish the flames without dying. So I had to vent the fire. Bye bye oxygen supply. Brave Artiom had almost managed to bring the life-support up to working condition before he passed due to lack of oxygen.

My initial WoT: It's awesome.

Harlander

15-06-2012, 06:54 AM

Pros: it's awesome
Cons: you can't save your game if you suddenly need to do something else

TechnicalBen

15-06-2012, 08:45 AM

Yep, I think a lack of save game would probably be a BETA oversight. Hopefully anyhow. I understand giving it a rougelike "hardcore" gameplay mode. But saving mid game is needed to be able to return later.

That and snapshots/screenprints we can annotate would be great (although Steam integration allows this already).

Harlander

15-06-2012, 09:11 AM

From the beta suggestion/bug thingy:
"Sorry, but there is no way to save games currently and we don't plan do add the option at this time." - the devs

I got the impression was their rationale was they didn't want a save-screwup-load cycle going on, but if enough people badger them they might put in a roguelike-esque one save kinda mechanism

Sarigs

15-06-2012, 10:29 AM

I only got to play around with it a little bit this morning so far, but I've been really enjoying it. I'm finding it alot harder then I find remembered!

I've lost every time so far with my ship either being taken out by bigger guns or boarded.

My favorite ending so far involved me coming across one of those automated drone ships in a solar flare area. The drone was equipped was both a stealth drive and double ion cannons which effectively knock a system offline but deal no actual damage.

They immediately engaged, stealthed straight off the bat so I couldn't target (it also stops you weapon system powering up until they decloak), then popped out and knocked out my engine room and shield with a well placed ion shot. Long story shots. The solar flares ensured that any attempt to reactivate the engine rooms and getting the heck out of there was beat back by walls of fire. Unable to flee the system and with the fire spreading to the O2 room, the drone refusing to play fair and stop disappearing every few rounds meant that by the time I'd taken him down, only my pilot was left, now huddled in the med bay after being forced to abandon his post by the lack of air. Desperate and alone he made a last ditch effort to make a run to reboot the O2 generator and made it into the corridor before being set erupting in flames.

....Yeah I think me and this game are gonna get alone just fine

Lambchops

15-06-2012, 11:39 AM

My favourite near death experience (and in the game!) so far has been when I had a crew member stuck in an oxygen depleted room fixing a breach. Having fixed it they were running out of health and panicking I wanted to open as many doors as possible to flood the room with oxygen and give him a chance to survive. Unfortunately the "open all doors" button turns out not to be the way to to it, what with opening all the airlock doors and sucking all the oxygen out of my entire ship! The poor heroic crew member died and I barely managed to correct my mistake in time to save the rest of my crew from a similar fate. Brilliant stuff.

DarkFenix

15-06-2012, 02:17 PM

My one real gripe with the game is the ship unlocking. One is given for reaching sector 5, one is given for beating the final boss, these are fine. However the other two unlocks both require their own random event, I've not found the mission to unlock the stealth ship and I've only seen the requisite mantis ship once, which then died without surrendering so didn't unlock. I don't mind the game requiring me to do something specific, I have a problem with unlocks based on luck.

Aside from that, amazing stuff all the way. You know you're playing a roguelike when the game bends you over and has its way with you multiple times without so much as a warning.

Just managed to finish my first full run in the Kestrel. Jesus that last boss is hard, it made me very glad I invested in fully upgrading cloak and shields and had a teleporter and four mantis crew members. Beaming those buggers aboard an enemy ship is brutally effective.

Alphager

18-06-2012, 09:39 PM

This is one of my contenders for Game of the Year 2012.

The beta is flawless; haven't seen a bug yet. The first update added fullscreen-mode to it.

FTL is pure nerve-wracking fun.

goatmonkey

18-06-2012, 10:07 PM

Really thinking I should have shelled out for the beta but I guess I have the full game to look forward to.

Lambchops

19-06-2012, 11:40 AM

i finally got to the boss yesterday only to get resoundedly beaten. It was a great run though, I knew I had a decent build half way through but almost got cut down in my prime, surviving an encounter in an asteroid field with just one hull point left, nervously hoping my defense drone would shoot down any incomind asteroids while waiting for my engines to charge. At that stage even jumping to the next few systems was tense, if I met an enemy before coming across a store I would have been a goner. Seeing the store icon was one of the best releases of tension I've had playing a game in ages!

It's probably marginally my game of the year over Crusader Kings II, if only because the short form nature means I actually finish games. Much as I love CKII I pretty much always end up distracted.

Sarigs

19-06-2012, 11:52 AM

i finally got to the boss yesterday only to get resoundedly beaten. It was a great run though, I knew I had a decent build half way through but almost got cut down in my prime, surviving an encounter in an asteroid field with just one hull point left, nervously hoping my defense drone would shoot down any incomind asteroids while waiting for my engines to charge. At that stage even jumping to the next few systems was tense, if I met an enemy before coming across a store I would have been a goner. Seeing the store icon was one of the best releases of tension I've had playing a game in ages!

It's probably marginally my game of the year over Crusader Kings II, if only because the short form nature means I actually finish games. Much as I love CKII I pretty much always end up distracted.

Yeah I've only made it to the boss once and I'm ashamed to say that was on easy. And while he didn't destroy me he beat me to within a inch of my hull giving out while I was still optimistically slapping away at his shields. I was forced to warp out only to be taken out by a drone ship lurking in the next sector.

I managed to unlock the stealth ship during one of my runs yesterday so I'm hoping to give that a test drive tonight. The difficulty curve seems just fine but I don't think I'm quite smart enough to keep up with it and always just overtaking about the mid sectors of the galaxy map!

johnki

08-08-2012, 01:57 AM

Wasn't sure where else to ask so...is there any way I can buy the game/get in on the beta any time soon? I missed the Kickstarter due to being broke but am pretty interested in the game.

Sarigs

08-08-2012, 08:12 AM

Wasn't sure where else to ask so...is there any way I can buy the game/get in on the beta any time soon? I missed the Kickstarter due to being broke but am pretty interested in the game.

Hey up,

I don't think their is atm but by all accounts it's almost ready and I think the release is planned in the next month or so